The car park doors from EFAFLEX attractively set the scene for multi-storey and underground car parks. Today car parks are no longer purely functional, but ideally attractive places that are safe and secure for their customers to use. EFAFLEX is making a major contribution to this development with its highly customisable high performance doors specifically manufactured for the parking sector. This success story began in 1995 in the Netherlands where the first EFAFLEX car park doors were installed in a multistorey car park in the city of Arnhem. More car parks and other cities around the country have followed. Today, the world market leader for high speed doors, manufactures the bespoke parking systems for customers from numerous nations – far beyond Europe’s borders too.

EFAFLEX parking systems doors are now in use in eight of the ten largest cities in the Netherlands, and in more than 20 municipalities in total. Car park operators’ favour EFAFLEX as the manufacturer of these special high-performance doors based on shared ideals: they should be robust and durable, high-performance, safe, visually attractive and fit in with the overall architectural appearance.

Unrivalled: high number of opening and closing cycles

Almere is such an example: in the seventh largest city in the Netherlands, the focus was on the desire for a robust door system that can complete many opening cycles per year. “Muntgarage Almere” offers space for 300 vehicles – and is now in operation around the clock thanks to the high performance of the EFAFLEX doors.’ The reliability is vital’ emphasises Alexander Fuchs. He is the Business Owner Parking at EFAFLEX headquarters. “Entrances to car parks of this size may be opened up to 600,000 times a year.” To classify this: with common garage doors around five cycles per day are expected – the EFAFLEX high-performance doors are designed to open up to 250,000 times between each service interval. “No other doors come even close to this service life and load capacity,” says Fuchs.

Design must be sustainable

Even beyond performance and durability, car park operators’ requirements are demanding. This is also due to the strict regulations for car parks in European cities and municipalities: construction elements and materials must be designed to keep care and maintenance costs low in the long term. Something that the world market leader for high-speed doors has always ensured thanks to its extremely high-quality standards.

Cleanliness and safety are top criteria

The lower operating and maintenance costs can be offset by higher revenues thanks to more satisfied customers and the resulting increased use of the parking facilities. “Customers often report back to us that their facilities have become much more attractive with our doors. They increase both safety and cleanliness in the car parks,” says Fuchs. These are two essential aspects: the fast automatic opening and closing system prevents unauthorised entry by vehicles or people gaining access to the car park during the few seconds when the door opens for the passing vehicle. These features are particularly essential for hotels, banks, authorities, and other public facilities, which is why the parking system gates with their automatic access control are often an elementary component of security concepts. Leaves, dust, and litter, for example, also have little chance of being blown in through the door. Fuchs states: “Our customers report up to 30 percent lower cleaning costs as a result.”

Service team is quickly on the spot

Because even a brief interruption in the door operation can have a significant impact on the car park’s turnover, operators also appreciate the close-knit service network and the short reaction times at EFAFLEX. Our highly trained fitters are on hand to provide solutions for all installation situations, even at weekends. The experts are certified in a wide range of specialist applications and have a high degree of expert knowledge.

Utmost expertise with maximum flexibility

Of course, this know-how already pays off during production: the engineers adapt each door individually to the customer’s requests. Combined designs are in demand along with different dimensions, materials, and colours to suit the place of application. For example, in addition to a door for the vehicles, an exact matching pedestrian door can be produced to the same design. This expertise and flexibility have already helped one customer win an award: The Zuidplein 10 car park in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, secured with the manufacturer’s parking system doors, received the European Parking Standard Award from the European Parking Association: this “parking industry Oscar” is awarded to parking facilities in Europe that meet the very highest standards of safety, sustainability, and excellence.

Customers all over the world rely on EFAFLEX car park doors

However, EFAFLEX’s catchment area is by no means limited to the Netherlands. The Chinese provincial capital of Harbin, for example, whose shopping centre was equipped with the high-performance parking system doors, is also counting on EFAFLEX’s reliable quality and all their other advantages. In addition to Germany and the Netherlands, the strongest demand is currently coming from the United Kingdom, France, and Russia. But the parking system doors, which are always tailor-made, are also supplied to Australia, China, South America, Hungary, and Kazakhstan.

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If oxygen and explosive matter mix in the air, a single spark is enough to ignite the combination. Therefore in endangered areas, special safety regulations apply, including with regard to the condition of devices, machines and all built-in components. Specifically for this purpose, EFAFLEX manufactures roller and spiral doors for indoor and outdoor use that meet the strict requirements – a reliable solution for every commercial area.

Gas, steam, mist, dust: in combination with air, these and other flammable substances can ignite. There are correspondingly endangered areas in many industry sectors, including pharmaceuticals, mining, petrochemicals and metal processing. In order to guarantee comprehensive safety in these explosive atmospheres (French: Atmosphères Explosives, or ATEX for short), Europe-wide guidelines apply. According to these regulations, the EFAFLEX specialists manufacture both roller doors (EFA-SRT® EX) and spiral doors (EFA-SST® EX ) for individual use.

Safe solutions for explosive areas
“There are two ways of being confronted with explosive atmospheres: explosive gases and an explosive dust-air mixture,” says Klaus Manlig, Head of the EFAFLEX Sales Academy. “These two areas are dealt with separately in the EU standards. We have developed a suitable solution for each of them. ”In order to cause an explosion, three components are required, as the expert explains. First: oxygen. This is always present in sufficient quantities in the air. Second: an explosive medium. The third component is an ignition source – a single spark is enough.

Efficient interaction of all components
The construction of the explosion-proof EFAFLEX door systems includes mechanical as well as electrical precautions, so that a spark cannot occur at any point to trigger an ignition. All the elements work together, as Manlig describes. “In addition to the mechanical, both the electrical and electronic components in our doors are equipped with the appropriate ATEX certificate. These include the pulse generator and other safety systems. Everything that is built in or attached directly to the door is safe.” In the control cabinet, which is installed outside of the potentially explosive area, all of the components installed and attached to the door are connected.

Custom features for all purposes
The door systems for these demanding applications are fundamentally different because they are precisely adapted to their areas of application, explains Manlig. The roller shutters, for example, are equipped with a certified black, non-transparent ATEX special curtain and all-round modern technology. Emergency provisions are also provided: if the power fails, for example, they can be opened quickly using a hand lever.

Proven EFAFLEX quality and individual production
What the two door solutions have in common is their inherently high opening and closing speed and their durability, as Manlig says: “Our doors are very robust and reliable. You can realise millions of openings. In addition, they are designed in such a way that they do not injure anyone when driving up and down and do not cause any damage to vehicles underneath, for example. ”The development of these systems took about a year together with TÜV SÜD. Each individual door is manufactured in-house in accordance with the guidelines as well as customer-specific. Manlig: “The customer tells us which dangerous situation prevails, indoors or outdoors. We build the door system according to these parameters, which is available in various dimensions including bespoke sizes.”

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Key facts:
Year founded: 1974
Sector: construction industry
World market share, number of continents: 6 (Source: 2018)
Subsidiaries in: Belgium, Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia,
China, Great Britain, Switzerland (Source: 2018)
Employees: 1,200 (Source: 2018)

To the industry overview

Parking garages, parking lots, park-and-ride, city parking, central transport hubs: As varied as parking systems are today, the requirements for their security are complex. Protection against burglary and vandalism, separation of public and private space and maximum efficient use of space resources – all these components are becoming increasingly relevant. As a reliable solution for entrances and exits, EFAFLEX offers parking system doors that can be used safely and quickly and in various spaces. EFAFLEX has just won the strict tender, review, and approval process for the “FUN²” project in the Chinese provincial capital of Harbin. In China’s northernmost province, the specialists have now installed twelve parking system doors for the new Harbin FUN2 shopping mall.

Parking: High security challenges
In view of the high volume of individual traffic in urban areas, quite a few cities rely on parking garages, parking lots, park-and-ride areas, city parking options or central transport hubs. This creates sensible accommodation options for the vehicles – but it also brings with it other important tasks: In recent years, protagonists in this business area have faced increasingly complex security requirements, for example in the form of complex protective measures against burglary and vandalism, in the form of necessary separation of public and private space as well as the efficient use of available space.

For example, escape routes must be designed and installed, while at the same time preventing unwanted access. This is the only way to prevent unauthorized entry and damage to third-party property. However, these security aspects are often neglected in planning or considered too late. Subsequent security gaps with regard to property and personal values are essential criteria for the acceptance of the parking areas and thus for the entire project.

In this context, the entrances and exits pose a particular security risk: often unsupervised, they give unauthorized persons the opportunity to gain access to the park infrastructure unnoticed. The dimensions of such entrances and exits represent a further challenge: Mostly necessary, larger than average openings are usually difficult to implement architecturally, especially in tight spaces.

Solutions for complex requirements in the parking sector
Because EFAFLEX has been operating in this area for a long time, the company’s specialists are aware of these tricky requirements. For this reason, they build high-speed doors that offer security, speed and application options adapted to the different parking conditions. The operator of the Harbin FUN² Shopping Mall in China is now also relying on this expertise. EFAFLEX was able to convince it of its expertise in its strict tendering, checking and approval process and recently installed a total of twelve parking system doors on site.

The special parking system solutions particularly address the extensive requirements in terms of security: Among other things, some EFAFLEX models with integrated, effective burglary protection have also been integrated into the escape route concept for fire and catastrophes in the shopping mall.

In this special installation situation, the high-speed spiral doors (EFA-SST®) guarantee both safety and comfort when passing through the entrances and exits of the underground car park. The high-quality internals open at a speed of up to two meters per second and close at up to one meter per second – immediately after the vehicle has passed. The building doors prevent unwanted access and unauthorized vehicles are prevented from entering the building.

EFAFLEX also solved the special difficulty of an above-average opening width for entrances and exits with the installed door variant. The maintenance costs also remain sustainably low: up to 250,000 load changes are possible per service interval. Thanks to the locking mechanisms, pollution in the parking garages is also reduced to a minimum. The operator benefits from this in the  form of lower personnel costs since the parking spaces need to be cleaned less frequently. 

New entry for our EFAPROTECT Series and Serie S
It offers secure protection against break-ins and has been specially developed for confined spaces. With the new high-speed spiral door, we are launching our sixth door, which according to DIN V ENV 1627 is certified for Resistance Class 2 (RC2).

Time and again we have found that customers need a door in specific areas where space is restricted making any possible installation a logistical challenge. This required a solution designed by our in-house team of industry experts and led to the development of the new Efficient door.

Space-saving and durable
This high-speed spiral door works without weight compensation via a chain drive which saves valuable space. The  highly insulating door blade also enables use in confined spaces, and thanks to the compact slim line frame dimensions, the door becomes a space miracle. For companies, this not only opens up the amount of possible uses but also the type of drive used too. The chain drive is resilient and requires little maintenance but is extremely durable. The EFA-SST® Efficient can be used as either an internal or external door, ideally in areas with medium traffic such as hall closings, storage areas or parking garages.

High-speed spiral door for confined spaces
 “It is precisely these areas that should not be neglected, even if one tends to focus on the doors that are at the centre of daily work processes,” says Klaus Manlig, Training Manager Sales. “With the EFA-SST® Efficient, we have developed a door that is ideally suited for these installation situations. It saves space, requires little maintenance and at the same time is very safe.”

The EFA-SST® Efficient is designed for approximately 150,000 load changes per year and operates at a speed of  0.5 m / s. Door widths from 600 to 4,000mm and heights from 1,100 to 5,130mm are available. With the WK2 certification, the EFA-SST® Efficient offers effective protection against unwanted intruders. After each closing operation, the door is automatically burglar-resistant without any additional locking measures.

Bespoke requests? No problem.
As with every door manufactured by EFAFLEX, this model is adapted to bespoke customer requirements including almost all lath variants that are available with the S Series.
EFAFLEX is represented on all continents and in more than 50 countries. We would be happy to advise you on site!

Last year, the topic of “automation” shaped the social debate about the digital future of industry. Fears that machines could take on too many tasks and replace people in the long term were also shared by well-known people in Silicon Valley, e.g. Elon Musk.

EFAFLEX has been working intensively on the changes that digital progress brings with it for several years. The motto of the world market leader from Bruckberg: embrace digitalisation as an opportunity.

This mindset creates new innovations that, for both employees and customers, simplify processes and increase efficiency in everyday work.

BIM: The digital gateway
EFAFLEX developed an in-depth digitalisation strategy early on in order to be able to react to changes in the industries that are important to the company. The “BIM” (Building Information Modeling) project, for example, focuses on digital change in the construction industry, which is particularly relevant in the planning phase. BIM is a method in which building data is recorded digitally and combined into a virtual model. All project participants have an overview of relevant construction factors such as the products used as well as their size, positioning and materials.

More and more architects, engineers and planning offices are digitising their planning processes. New buildings can be completely planned in 3D on the computer. This enables detailed planning before even a real construction phase is started. This reduces expensive and time-consuming errors that would otherwise only have potentially arisen later in the construction phase. If you are planning to install an EFAFLEX door in your building, you can download the data records of individual door series from the BIMobject® platform and enter them into your digital building model. “We offer our doors as a 3D data package that provides architects and planners with all the information they need. The doors can be adapted to different sizes in the model. This configurability makes things a lot easier,” says Jan Hauffe, Head of Product Management Sales.

In 2018, EFAFLEX received the BIMobject’s Award; a success that the team is not resting on. “We still have a lot of plans,” laughs Jan Hauffe. In the future, the data packets to the doors should contain other relevant information, such as costs, contacts and assembly details which can be expanded and available for download on various software platforms. When designing, the focus is on customer requirements for the solution, as Jan Hauffe emphasizes: “Here too, we are customer-oriented and tailor our digital offering to the needs of the target group. Digitisation offers many great opportunities for this.”

The future is digital
Further digitalisation projects are in the planning stage or are about to be tested.

“It is really fun to see that there are broad synergies between the individual projects and that we can use them to shorten processing times, for example. Not only do sales benefits develop from this, but also the customer,” says Jan Hauffe.

For this purpose, a project is being planned in which innovative 3D laser technology is to be used. This simplifies the on-site measurement process. This is often a challenge since the installation situation for new doors is often restricted and obscured by heating, ventilation, pipes or lighting. Communication between field and office staff is also simplified by the precise and above all spatial 3D measurement technology. A 2D distance measurement solution is already in use, but this advancement will be digital progress instead of yardstick.

For EFAFLEX, digital transformation offers a world of possibilities.